Who is the best paid sportsperson in the world? Cristiano Ronaldo perhaps? Or Kylian Mbappé? Lionel Messi? Novak Djokovic? LeBron James? Well, no. As of last week, it is someone even reasonably well-informed sports fans may not have heard of – a certain Shohei Ohtani, Japanese slugger and pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ohtani’s ten-year, 700-million-dollar contract is the most lucrative in sporting history.
Except technically Ohtani will not be the best paid sportsperson in the world, or at least not until the end of his term, as he has chosen to defer nearly all of his salary so that the bulk of the money can be invested by his new club in the team (he apparently has written assurances to that effect). He will exist on a paltry stipend of two million dollars a year (virtually minimum wage in Major League Baseball) and no interest will be paid on his postponed earnings.
There is a Japanese aversion to flaunting wealth or stepping outside their area of expertise
Of course Ohtani, the clean-cut, good-looking, scandal-free bachelor will pick up an additional fortune from endorsements – he has what the Asahi newspaper called ‘transcendent marketability’ – so he will hardly be living hand to mouth. Still, his decision, clearly motivated by a desire for the World Series pennant rather than any wish to get hugely rich quickly, is remarkable in the modern world of elite sport, where an almost protean greed dominates, as the mesmeric lure of the Saudi pro league for many already super-rich stars proves.
Ohtani is no outlier, though: his modesty and relative indifference to riches is characteristic of Japanese sports stars around the world. Ohtani has effortlessly stepped into the shoes of the retired Ichiro Suzuki who spent 20 years as one of the best – if not the best – sluggers in Major League Baseball while remaining untouched by controversy and scrupulously polite in dealings with the press and fans. Compare that with some of the world’s top footballers, or the scandal-wracked hitters Mark McGwire or Barry Bonds, whom John Updike once memorably described as a ‘juiced-up surly bastard’.
And it’s not just baseball. In the UK we have a fine collection of Japanese footballers who have shown exemplary behaviour on and off the pitch. Current Scottish champions Celtic have six Japanese players, all paragons of modesty, and unfailingly polite about their host country. One suspects that they may have a few complaints, but they never voice them: I once interviewed the Japanese goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima, who spent time at Dundee and it was only with the persistent prompting that I could get him to reluctantly admit that, yes, on balance, he did prefer ramen and tempura to the fried mars bars and chips of his new home.
In part, this is due to a different background and upbringing which engenders a humbleness that we haven’t seen since the days of Geoff Hurst mowing his lawn after scoring a hat-trick in the 1966 World Cup final ‘because it needed doing’. In Japan, promising sportsmen are not treated as princelings from an early age and handed an agent, plus unseemly wealth, and set on a path towards a lifetime of ruthless brand management and revenue maximisation. Ohtani, who comes from a family of modest means, was assigned toilet cleaning duties by his coach at baseball academy. Suzuki has described his apprenticeship as brutal.
More often than in the West, brilliant sporting talents have surprisingly rounded CVs and are often thoughtful and unusually well-educated. Hidetoshi Nakata, Japan’s answer to David Beckham, is fluent in four languages and has Chinese and French in his sights. Ice-skating legend Mao Asada is a university graduate, as is Kaoru Mitoma of Brighton who went to the highly ranked Tsukuba Science University, where he wrote his thesis on dribbling – a veritable student of the game.
Then there is the Japanese aversion to flaunting wealth or stepping outside their area of expertise. I once asked a friend who worked in recruitment in Tokyo placing already wealthy executives how the super-rich lived and how you could recognise them. You can’t, he told me: they live in ordinary neighbourhoods, drive ordinary cars, and dress the same as everybody else. To do otherwise would be to upset the delicate societal harmony. Japan remains a ‘we’ rather than a ‘me’ society. A Japanese Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather or a social justice warrior like Megan Rapinoe is unimaginable.
Japanese stars don’t go native. They are quietly patriotic – and they all return home. Even the sophisticated polyglot Nakata came back. He now devotes his time to reviving traditional Japanese crafts such as sake brewing. While abroad, they consider themselves to be ambassadors for their country and behave accordingly. Ohtani, who this year led his country to a thrilling victory in the World Baseball Classic (the closest thing the sport has to the World Cup) has said that ‘I have always wanted to fight with the Japanese flag on my back’. That sums it up. Basically, Japanese sports stars don’t want to let the side down; and ultimately their side is Japan.
Comments